After seeing the first preview for this movie, a hefty groan mixed with laughter escaped my lips.  My expectations for this movie were pretty low, but as the months to its release became fewer, I found that Cowboys & Aliens became slightly more appealing.  This was good, because as I sat in the piss poor excuse of a theater I watched it in, my mind was able to be cleared of any previous judgement.  Almost exactly two hours later, walking out of the theater, feelings of satisfaction washed over me.  Not overly or underly, just plain old satisfied.  And to be honest, that’s all this movie is, satisfying.

By no means will it get an Oscar nod.  Because while it straddles genres, not just a western, and not just an alien movie, it tries to do it very simply.  Which is a problem.  You can’t just expect two vastly different genres to meld together well.  You’ve got to expect a good bit of complexity.  Yet there was none in Cowboys.  Instead, we’re given very simple characters, with very simple motivations, placed in what the film-makers want you to think is a simple situation.  So really, it’s mindless entertainment, but it’s leagues over any Transformer movie.  Many, many leagues.

The major failing of this movie is that we’re watching these characters cope with encountering aliens, and yet, there’s hardly any surprise.  There’s no emotional impact to finding that life has come from the stars.  There’s also a major lack of awe at the technology the aliens use.  It should at least be slightly perplexing to these people, but no, it isn’t.  They take it in stride as if they’d seen it before.  As to the aliens existence/origins?  There’s a bit of mumbling about them being demons or some such, but even after what they are is revealed (by yet another alien!) these people don’t ask a single damn question about it.  Really?  I mean, really?  The writers should have thought about this, should have thought that people who lived 140 years ago, probably wouldn’t react the same way as people in alien movies set in the present, or future, would react.  Jules Vernes ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ came out a number of years before this movie supposedly takes place.  So for a period movie, the only context for this period is “western” design.  That design is loosely translated into how the characters talk, but again, the context of “western,” stops there.

As far as science fiction goes, there’s a bit of the typical social, moral, and philosophical critique going on.  I’ll try to express these without revealing any plot details.

There’s some religious talk that permeates part of the exposition, which in fact, is done so well, I found myself enjoying it.  But to my dismay, it is suddenly cut off in a very clear manner.  It’s as if the story is telling you that faith, while certainly a good tool for humanity to use, has no place when dealing with a greater threat (in this case aliens) to our survival.  It’s a bit too purposeful for it to be an accident, and when you watch the movie, you’ll know what I mean.  The event that brings this about might as well have had subtitles that read “Belief in God has no place in a movie with aliens,” or “Aliens beat God.”

Another “theme” if you will, is that of overcoming our differences to work together.  This is a fairly obvious jab at the current state of politics in the United States, whether or not the film makers meant it to be so.  The only problem, is that we (the humans) have practically no hand in the unification process in this movie.  The catalyst is the revelation that ours is not the first planet these aliens have been to and thus, other intelligent life exists, one that wants to fight the aliens with us.  It is that event that brings together people that once only wanted blood from the other.  We humans do a little mingling after that, but apparently, we’re not good enough to get over our problems on our own without the help of a supernatural being.  That was easily the hardest part of the movie to swallow, and very well could ruin it for a lot of people.  All the “uniting of forces” is just a message saying “Hey guys, let’s all stop fighting each other and work together for the common good. Race and ideology doesn’t mean we have to hate each other.” But the movie makes all that null and void by needing another alien to come in and mediate. *facepalm*

With that said, I found Craigs character to be rather kind of weak. He was a hero by accident.  Even as his character gained memories, and we learned more about who this guy is/was, it was harder to believe his motivations for playing hero, than it was to believe in the aliens. Mainly because I finally realized how LITTLE Craig talks in his movies. For being the main protagonist, the supporting cast seemed to have most of the dialogue. He’s great at action, and good at body language, but shouldn’t a hero say a little more?  Maybe then I wouldn’t have thought his character was so… bland.

On a brighter note, Sam Rockwell. I found myself wanting to see his character more than any other. He made a bit part more entertaining than any of the other characters, combined.  Also, do you remember Paul Dano from There Will Be Blood, and how great of a performance he put on?  Well, even though he was given some of the least screen time, he made every single second count.  As with Rockwell, he was a character I’d rather have watched than the rest.

When alls done and said, this movie certainly deserves your money more than many of the summer releases.  But if you’re deciding between Captain America and this, go with the former.